Re: utf8 character show as ???

[Shuichi Tamagawa]

> [mysqld]
> datadir=/var/lib/mysql
> socket=/var/lib/mysql/mysql.socket
> default-chararcter-set=utf8
> default-collation=utf8_general_ci

This is the setting for mysql server. And it only affect server character set variables which are:
character_set_server
character_set_database

character_set_client, character_set_connection, character_set_results are client character set variables. So if you wan to set the default values for these variables, you need to set the option in 'mysql' section of my.cnf(or my.ini) file.

[mysql]
default-chararcter-set=utf8

However, this works only for 'mysql' client program, not for the application program. You may need to set the client character set for your programs. How to do this depends on the programming language.

One way to do this is the set an start up option in mysqld section of my.cnf file.

[mysqld]
init_connect='SET NAMES utf8'

By setting this, the statement will be executed by the server right after each client cnnect to the server.